Worth a Thousand Words
by Bluebaby555
Summary: It's said that every photo is worth a thousand words and someone wants one of Emily Prentiss to scream a lot more than just a thousand.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from Criminal Minds.**

**CHAPTER ONE**

Emily Prentiss lifted her hands to the side of her face trying to cover it from the relentless flashing and questions that were bombarding her. She, Hotch, Reid, Morgan, JJ, and Rossi were being ushered to a waiting SUV that would drive them away from the crime scene. They had just stopped James Anderson, a sadistic serial killer who preyed on elderly women. His body count had finally reached 18 before they were able to catch him and the press was all over the story. Prentiss got into the black SUV as soon as the door was open, glad to be away from the cameras and reporters.

…………………

Kelsey Lanston was only 18 years old and she was naïve. Standing five feet 11 inches her long limbs dangled awkwardly and her dark brown hair was pulled back into a lose pony tail showing off her high cheek bones, full lips, and big brown eyes. She felt exposed and uncomfortable wearing nothing but a tiny red bikini but if she wanted to model she had to get over that and face her fears. This was the big opportunity she had been waiting for.

"Where do you want me stand?" She asked softy, trying not to fall over in the ridiculous 6 inch heels that were strapped to her feet.

Jay Holmes finished loading a fresh role of film into his camera and reached into his back pocket taking out three red silk scarves. He put the camera down and calmly walked over to the innocent teenager.

"What are those for?"

"Listen I didn't want to say anything before hand because I thought you might get a little spooked but if we want any agencies to take these photos seriously I'm going to have to tie you up and gag you."

Kelsey looked at Jay like he had suddenly sprouted a second head. "You have got to be kidding me! I'm out of here."

Jay reached out and placed a comforting hand on her skinny shoulder. "Right now all the top magazines and designers are looking for girls who are edgy and aren't afraid to take risks. I was thinking we could do this sort of damsel in distress, film noir type thing for the portfolio. You do want people to take these photos seriously don't you?"

The little voice inside Kelsey's head was screaming at her that it wad degrading and that it wasn't worth it but in her heart she had wanted to be a model ever since she was a little girl and she wanted to prove that she could do it. "Alright, but don't tie them too tight."

Jay flashed her a mega watt smile and took hold of her wrists. "Of course."


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

Emily Prentiss took a sip of her morning coffee from the shop right around the corner from her apartment and looked at the newspaper in disgust. There on the front page was a photo of her and JJ trying their best to get away from the press. The headline read, **"FBI Agents finally catch the Grim Reaper of Pine Terrace Nursing Home." **She hated it whenever they gave the unsub a name. It was just something that would boost his ego and make sure he would be remembered. The victims would only be remembered by their families and loved ones. Emily finished off the rest of her coffee in one painful gulp and threw the newspaper into the trash. She hated getting her photo taken.

"Excuse me are you a model?"

Emily turned around to see a handsome guy in his mid thirties. He had a strong build and chiseled facial features. The man was wearing a dark button up shirt and black expensive looking pants and shoes. He was extremely good looking but obviously bad at getting women's' attention.

"Was that supposed to be a pick up line?" She laughed.

"If it worked than yes if it didn't than no." He said flashing a flirtatious grin.

Normally a line like that would never work on her but this guy was cute and she hadn't exactly been hit on lately. "Surprisingly I think it worked. No I'm not a model, I eat."

He smiled again. "You just look like a model the beautiful face, the height, and the long limbs."

"Are you a photographer by any chance?" She asked reading him right away.

"Yes, I' am." He said surprised that she would catch onto that so quickly. He reached into his wallet and fished out his card handing it to her.

"Jay Holmes." She read. "I'm Emily." She said shaking his hand.

"Yeah, I mostly do free lance you know taking photos for portfolios but that's just to pay the rent. My style is more Diane Arbus. I'm always taking photos whenever I can.

"Diane Arbus, nice." She had always had a strange fascination with Diane Arbus's photographs.

"So Emily since you eat would you be interested in going out to dinner with me?"

"Oh I don't know…"

"Come on it will be fun and I'll leave my camera at home I promise."

Emily thought about it for a moment. She hadn't been on a date in ages and her creep radar wasn't going off with this guy. The strange thing she had going on with Hotch at the moment was only physical and showed no signs of going anywhere.

"Sure why not." She said grabbing a pen and scrap piece of paper from her bag and writing down her number.

"I will definitely call you later." He said beaming with delight.

Emily's cell phone started ringing and she took it out of her bag and saw that it was JJ. "I have to get to work." She told Jay.

"Yeah me too."

Emily left the little coffee shop grinning from ear to ear.

……………………

"Kelsey Lanston, 18-years-old. Her body was found in a shallow grave in a local baseball diamond at the park. A couple of kids playing discovered her body. She was bound and gagged with three red silk scarves and she was strangled to death." JJ said bringing the crime scene photos up on the screen.

"The way the scarves are tied it looks like this wasn't our unsub's first time. He was meticulous." Reid said.

"Yeah but don't you think it was a little sloppy disposing of the body where it could be easily found?" Morgan said.

Emily took a closer look at one of the crime scene photos. "Maybe he wanted her to be found. Maybe he wanted people to see his work."

"All right Prentiss and I will go to the scene where the body was dumped. Hopefully you can find more that will help us." Hotch said.

The car ride over to the park was awkward and filled with mindless chit chat to try in fill in the blocks of silence.

_"I guess this is what happens when you start sleeping with your boss." Emily thought to herself._

"What are you doing tonight?" Hotch asked.

"I might have some plans." She told him.

Hotch glanced over at her. "Plans?" He asked.

"Yeah a date." She said.

Hotch would never admit to being jealous but he was. He didn't like the idea of Emily going out on a date but who was he to say anything? He was the one who had made it clear that what was going on between them was purely physical. He stepped down on the gas pedal harder than he should have and the rest of the ride was filled with complete silence.

Jay Holmes sat in his studio holding three red silk scarves in his hands. He knew that this new one would be harder than the rest. She wasn't naïve like them but that was fine with him. He wanted to have some fun.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

Emily and Hotch hadn't found any thing further at the crime scene that could help them. Garcia surprisingly came up with nothing either. She looked up all unsolved murders in the past two years but nothing matched their unsub's method or style of killing. Unfortunately they would have to wait until more information came up which would probably meant another body.

Emily was sitting at her desk going through some crime scene photos when her cell phone went off. She smiled to herself when she saw the number.

"So you decided to call after all." She said answering the phone.

"I wouldn't dream of not calling." Jay said. "Listen there's this great little Italian place downtown called Angelo's have you heard of it?"

"I have."

"Would you meet me there around 7:30?"

"I would love to but no cameras." She flirted.

"No cameras I promise."

"Bye see you at 7:30." Emily said closing her cell phone. She smiled to herself again. This was the first decent guy she had met in a while.

Hotch was passing by and overheard the brief conversation. He gritted his teeth and walked by to his office trying to ignore that strange feeling in his heart. Part of him was glad that Emily seemed happy but another part of him wanted to find the loser she was meeting with and punch his lights out. He just wanted her to be and feel safe.

Emily looked at her watch realizing that she only had about an hour and a half to get to her apartment and get ready for her first date in a long time. In a strange way she felt like she was cheating on Hotch but then again there was nothing serious going on between them, it was just sex.

……………………

Jay waited outside of Angelo's fondling a piece of Kelsey's hair in his pants pocket. He looked down the sidewalk and about 100 yards away Emily was approaching. She was wearing a casual black dress that showed off her long legs and her hair fell around her shoulders framing her face perfectly. When she finally approached him she had a serious look on her face. Jay was worried that she might cancel their date. He wouldn't let this one go so easily. He needed her.

"There's something I feel I should tell you before we go in there." Emily said looking down at her feet.

"What is it?" Jay asked nervously.

Emily took a deep breath. "I'm a nerd.

Jay laughed and smiled at her. "You're a nerd?"

"Yes and I always end up saying something stupid so I just thought I would warn you."

"Well what type of nerd are you exactly? Are you a Star Wars, Kurt Vonnegut reading nerd or a physics and geometry loving nerd?"

"Both."

"That's perfect actually because I'm that type of nerd too."

Emily laughed in relief and smiled when Jay took her hand in his. "Come on lets go eat and talk about how the new Star Wars trilogy pales in comparison to the original trilogy." Jay said.

"That sounds great."

Jay opened up the door for Emily and fondled Kelsey's hair one last time before going into the restaurant. Taking pictures of Emily would be fun and he couldn't wait to hear her scream.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

For practically the first time in her life a first date had gone perfectly for Emily Prentiss. Jay was the perfect guy. He was funny, smart, and talented and what was best of all he didn't brag about it. It didn't hurt that he was also extremely handsome. He had invited her back to his place after dinner but she had politely declined. She didn't want to move to fast and end up messing things up besides she was still confused about where she and Hotch stood and she wanted to sort that out before she moved any further with Jay.

It was a little past 11:30 when she arrived at Hotch's apartment but she knew that he would be up. He rarely got any sleep. She knocked on his door twice before he opened up. He looked anxious when he answered the door like he had been up for hours with thoughts racing through his mind.

"Hi." She said coming into the apartment.

He closed the door behind her. "How was your date?" He asked.

"It was great." She decided that she wasn't going to lie.

"That's good to hear." He said sarcastically.

"Why do you even care?" She asked him the sarcasm in his voice not lost on her.

"Because I care about you." He told her.

Emily rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Look Hotch don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying."

"You and I both know that the only thing going on between us is sex. You made pretty damn sure to make sure I knew that."

"That doesn't mean I don't care about you Emily."

"It's means something." She said opening up the door to leave. "This thing between us is getting to confusing. I think we should just stop."

Hotch wanted to stop her from leaving but he let her go. He was confused too. He didn't want to lose her and he didn't want her seeing this new guy but he didn't know how to tell her. It had started out as "just sex" but it quickly turned into something bigger and quite frankly that scared the crap out of him.

Jay watched Emily leave Hotch's apartment complex and his knuckles grew white as he gripped the steering wheel furiously. He wasn't going to lose this next one to some loser. He wanted her and he was going to get her.

The next morning when Hotch was leaving for work there was a strange guy leaning up against his car. "Can I help you?" He asked the man."

"Do you know Emily Prentiss?" Jay asked Hotch.

"Yes she works for me, why?"

"Stay away from her." Jay told him.

"Excuse me?"

Jay pushed himself off of Hotch's car and got into his face. "I said stay away from her."

"Who the hell are you?"

"Let's just say I'm a new friend of hers and I don't really want her seeing you anymore."

"Stay away from her." Jay warned him one last time before he walked away.

Hotch saw something indescribably evil flash through his eyes. If this was the new guy that Emily was seeing than he definitely wasn't comfortable with it. If he had the nerve to threaten him than what was he capable of doing to Emily?


	5. Chapter 5

Jay sat in his car parked across from Emily's apartment. He angrily punched himself in the jaw over and over again and in the legs. A large ugly bruise began to form and his jaw became swollen. He waited until Emily came out of her apartment before he got out of his car and stumbled over to her. Emily dropped her bag and ran over to him when she saw his face.

"Oh my God! What happened to you?" She asked carefully touching his face to see how bad it was.

Jay flinched and gently took her hand in his. "Do you know some guy named Aaron?" He asked.

"Yes." Emily said.

"He found me and told me to stay away from you. I told him no and he beat the shit out of me." Jay rubbed his jaw cringing at the pain.

"Hotch did this to you?" Emily asked unsure. Hotch didn't seem like the type to lose control and do something like this.

"Yeah." Jay stumbled again and almost fell over. "I don't think I can drive back to my apartment. He really banged up my legs."

Emily skeptically looked over Jay. She still wasn't sure about the whole thing but then again she knew Hotch didn't want her anywhere near Jay. He could have lost control and just gotten angry. "I'll drive you back to your place." She told Jay.

It only took about 10 minutes for Emily to drive Jay back to his apartment and he asked her to help him in. Once they were in his apartment Jay told her he was going to go into the bathroom and check out how bad the damage was. Emily looked around and took in his apartment. There was a photo shoot set up and she figured that he probably had a client coming over later. She walked over to a large desk in the corner and pulled out the middle draw. Three red silk scarves caught her attention. They looked exactly like the ones that were found on Kelsey Lanston. She shuffled through the rest of the draw and found a lock of dark brown hair.

"Emily." Jay called from the doorframe of the bathroom.

Emily's head snapped up and she knew that she was in trouble.


End file.
